Cadence, Columbus, Ohio. November 30, 2007.

This photo has special memories for me, which is why it is my favorite photo for today’s date. It is one of my all time favorite portraits.

At one of our favorite restaurants, which went out of business several years ago, we had a favorite server. When we went there to eat we would be ask to be seated in her section. If it wasn’t a busy night she would stop at our table and visit. Over a period of time we learned a lot about her life, and she learned a lot about us.

I decided I wanted to do something nice for her for Christmas, so I offered to do a portrait session with her young daughter as a Christmas gift. I told her to bring some of her daughter’s favorite things to the photo session.

I decided long ago that posing a 2 1/2 year old is not the easiest thing to do. I prefer to let the child play and grab good moments with the camera as they come along.

I set up a wide, colorful backdrop, and spaced my studio lights so there was nice even light across the whole area. The daughter played and I sat on the floor and talked to her as she played. As the daughter moved around the floor and played with her things, I slid around on the floor with her to keep the backdrop behind her. Every once in a while she gave me a nice look and I would click the shutter.

At my request, her mother was always somewhere behind me and every now and then the daughter would look up at her mother. It was one of those moments that is my favorite image of the whole photo shoot.

The mother was thrilled with the print. It gave me a lot of joy to hand the mother her Christmas gift and see her eyes light up.

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Series: Favorite Photos by Date – all about this series